How To Access Att Wifi Settings

While networking-gear makers accept been making installation utilities easier to use over the years, getting the best out of your new wireless router purchase usually means delving a little deeper than the standard installation routine will go. Just because you've plugged in everything and all the blinking lights accept turned green doesn't mean your network's operation and its security are as good as they could be. Follow these basic steps to properly configure your router and optimize your wireless network.

How Exercise I Connect My Wi-Fi Router?

These steps assume that yous've already constitute the right router for your dwelling house. If yous're still looking to make a purchase, check out our wireless router buying guide (link above) or, if you lot're looking for something a little cheaper, try our budget routers roundup, which consists of our top players under $100. If you're looking for the fastest possible pipe with which to enjoy video gaming, and then cheque out our gaming routers guide. All these buying guides contain our best and latest reviews in each category with every thespian completing PC Labs' wireless router testing suite.

Top-Rated Routers We've Tested

When choosing a router, you'll have to make up one's mind whether you desire a Wi-Fi 6 router, a Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) router, or a Wi-Fi mesh system. At that place are still enough of capable Wi-Fi five routers out there that will handle lite to moderate networking needs, but if you lot want the latest technology and the performance it brings, yous'll want to become with a Wi-Fi vi router. (Check out our Wi-Fi 6 explainer for more in-depth information outset.)

Wi-Fi mesh systems are for folks willing to pay a little more for two primary benefits: easy basic setup, and whole-home Wi-Fi coverage. While you can increase the coverage in your home with a standard router and a wireless range extender, that solution tends to make users bound through a few additional hoops to get things working smoothly, notably forcing users to log into different wireless networks depending on where they are in the habitation. Wi-Fi mesh makes all that get away with a very quick and like shooting fish in a barrel path to initial setup and a series of uniform "nodes" that integrate seamlessly into a single wireless network that blankets your entire dwelling.

Top-Rated Wi-Fi Range Extenders We've Tested

Newer Wi-Fi mesh systems, such as the Amazon Eero 6 and Asus ZenWiFi AX (XT8), combine Wi-Fi 6 and mesh technology into a single package—and in the case of the new Eeros, add Zigbee smart home engineering science besides.

While Wi-Fi mesh is definitely the simplest option when it comes to achieving that basic set of green blinking lights, that yet represents merely bones router setup, mesh or otherwise. Let's say, though, that you desire to improve security with a invitee network and parental controls, or add quality of service (QoS) settings to protect the traffic coming from a specific application or traveling to a specific device. Then y'all're going to need to dig below your router or mesh system'southward basic installation utility. That's when the steps below will come in handy.

Placement and Setup

Before getting started, yous need to consider where yous'll place your router. Finding an open space near the centre of your residence is the best style to ensure optimal coverage. Exist aware that walls and floors will impede Wi-Fi signals, then the more obstructions you take between your devices and your router, the weaker (and potentially slower) the signal will be. Try to avoid proximity to big metallic, glass, brick, or physical objects. Wi-Fi mesh systems get effectually this problem by letting you identify an attractively designed node wherever coverage is weakest. But for those working with standard routers or even wireless range extenders, this will require some patience and testing to see where your optimal placement areas are.

Beginning this process past connecting your router to your modem. For this, yous'll need an Ethernet cable, which you'll want to plug into the WAN (wide-expanse network) port on your router'due south rear face. This port might look slightly different from router to router, but it volition unremarkably take a singled-out color from the other ports and exist labeled "WAN," "Internet," or something similar. From the WAN port, connect the other end of the Ethernet cable to the Ethernet port on the back of your modem. Ensure your modem is turned on, and you'll exist prepare to connect to the internet. Then, of course, you demand to plug your router into a wall outlet and turn it on.

Photo of typical router's rear port selection

Every bit mentioned in a higher place, most mesh Wi-Fi systems and some of the latest standard wireless routers can now be configured completely from your smartphone. Manufacturers will have their own unique setup app, so consult your router's quick-start guide to ensure you download the right ane. Not all routers take a mobile app, though, and if y'all'd rather not use one there'southward e'er a backup method. Typically, this is a dedicated website URL that loads the router'due south internal configuration folio. You can discover this URL by connecting your computer to any of the router's LAN ports via Ethernet cablevision and entering 192.168.1.1 or a similar address (as specified by the router's documentation) into your browser search bar.

Screen shot of login box for standard router configuration utility

The start step to go your network up and running will be to set up a username and password. If you happen to have a pre-owned router, the username and password can be reset to factory defaults by belongings a recessed push button somewhere on the router (unremarkably the back). Often, these defaults are something like "admin" and "admin," which every would-be hacker knows, so brand sure to modify these right abroad. Be sure to apply a secure password that includes a mix of uppercase and lowercase messages, numbers, and symbols.

How Do I Configure My Router?

With the username and password set up, you can proceed to configure your router'southward settings. As with cooking a dinner, there's no "right" manner to install a router, and every model is likely to have its own unique steps, depending on its features. Because of this, trying to describe every possible configuration path here would be exhausting and pointless. We recommend consulting your router's manual for specifics.

That said, we do have a few points of communication. Get-go, utilise the easy setup sorcerer. Most routers provide some class of cursory setup routine that asks for trivial more than the SSID and password. If in incertitude, outset with this. (The SSID is your router's Wi-Fi name. Information technology might be something similar "asus" or "netgear" out of the box, but experience complimentary to modify this to something creative, like "FBI-surveillance-van.") Yes, this utility merely gets you as far as that abovementioned set of blinking green lights, only even for those looking to become beyond that stage, you need to become there commencement. Following the router's documentation and using its own setup utility is always the shortest path to that destination.

2nd, utilize the WPS button to connect Wi-Fi devices. If you've always paired ii Bluetooth devices, such as a smartphone with headphones, so yous already have the bones understanding of how this works. Let'southward say you want to connect a Windows laptop to your router. On your laptop, you'll meet your router's SSID popular up on the list of visible wireless networks in Windows. When you select the SSID and try to connect, Windows will prompt yous to enter the network security fundamental (which is a needlessly technical manner of proverb "password").

If you've done a proper job with your security and made a password with randomized upper-case letter and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols, you'll accept utterly forgotten information technology and not want to mess with typing it in ever once again. Instead, printing the WPS button on your router. You should let at least a infinitesimal for the router and laptop to find each other and successfully pair. Proceed in mind that WPS works but with Windows and Android devices.

Finally, when in doubt, permit the router do it. Motorcar-configuration tools are your friend. For example, while you can certainly go to the trouble of building your own internal IP address range and assigning static addresses to all your devices by paw, simply checking the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) box in your router'southward settings will have care of that immediately since this is a protocol that automatically assigns IP addresses to devices. The lesson hither is that just because you can change something doesn't hateful you should. At to the lowest degree during the setup and early-employ stages, become with the auto settings as much every bit possible.

two.4GHz? 5GHz? Which Frequency Should I Utilize?

If you're using a dual-band Wi-Fi 5 or Wi-Fi 6 router, yous can connect your client devices to either a two.4GHz band or a 5GHz band. If yous accept a tri-band router, you get an actress 5GHz ring that you can dedicate to gaming and video streaming. A 5GHz connectedness will provide amend operation at short ranges than 2.4GHz. This is because 5GHz, while somewhat faster, can't travel equally far or transmit through some objects due to that band's shorter wavelengths. On the other hand, the 2.4GHz band travels further but tends to have more congestion and fewer channel options.

That said, if you want to proceed using 2.4GHz, consider experimenting with the channel selection. "Machine" usually does a decent job of hopping effectually the channel options and finding the best one, merely if you lot're struggling with customer connections, endeavour manually setting the channel to 1 or 11. The 2.4GHz band has a total of 11 channels you tin switch amongst to avoid interference, with channel 6 normally being the default. When yous select a given channel, there's normally some bespeak spillover. And so, selecting channel two, for example, will oftentimes spill traffic onto channels 1 and 3. Thus, switching to the extremes of 1 or 11, the uttermost points from the default of 6, tin sometimes ensure the best-performing connections.

Most Wi-Fi 6 routers back up 160MHz channel bandwidth across the 5GHz band, which offers higher data rates than 2.4GHz channels do (and thus increased performance). And the latest add-on to the Wi-Fi 6 standard, known as Wi-Fi 6E, allows users to connect to the 6GHz radio band, which is relatively uncluttered and offers lower latency and faster performance than what you can expect on the ii.4GHz and 5GHz bands. Older devices can connect to Wi-Fi 6E routers, but only devices that back up Wi-Fi 6E can connect to the 6GHz ring. These routers are finally hitting the shelves, simply client devices are still boring to market.

After the "easy" setup, some routers will walk y'all through a few extra steps, such as establishing parental controls (features that permit you to filter certain types of content) and automatically updating the router firmware. Later on these preliminaries, proceed to "wireless setup," or a similarly named tab/screen to activate your Wi-Fi network. Once your network is activated, you tin can connect any device to information technology and start browsing the spider web.

With most routers, but activating your network and connecting to the net is just scratching the surface of what you can do. While a tab name like "advanced settings" may seem a fleck intimidating, the menus contained here oft allow you to command some of your router's most helpful features. We'll cover some of the most compelling items beneath.

How to Configure Quality of Service (QoS)

As mentioned higher up, QoS is one of the most useful features for online entertainment. It allows you to select and prioritize the upstream and downstream traffic on your network, which can provide a performance boost for your favorite streaming service or online game. Most routers volition have a tab in their app/configuration page dedicated to traffic monitoring. Navigate to this and find the QoS tab. Turn QoS on, and and so you lot tin prioritize certain services, such as online games or video streaming.

You can too prioritize devices on the network. Years ago, this was usually washed by supplying the device's unique MAC accost and setting a priority level for that device. These days, vendors like Netgear are increasingly supplying more intuitive, graphical approaches to the same idea, equally in the Transmission Prioritization screenshot beneath.

Manual Prioritization configuration view

QoS options can also allow yous to run into how your full bandwidth is being distributed by device, and so you can spot anyone grabbing more than than their fair or desired share.

These days, most traffic is download in nature, especially with multimedia streaming. If you detect your streaming services pausing to buffer every and so oftentimes, try using QoS to prioritize their traffic. Nevertheless, in full general, only gamers need to worry most upstream prioritization.

Invitee Networks

A guest network is handy to have if you'd prefer to go on all the data and files on your personal network out of unapproved hands. To set i up, go to your router'southward app/configuration folio and navigate to the wireless settings. Most routers have invitee networks disabled by default, so there will usually be a page to set ane upwards here. Ostend the network's proper name and password and the network will exist set upward.

We strongly recommend applying at least WPA2 encryption to your regular Wi-Fi network, but y'all may desire to leave your guest network "open up" for easier access. While user-friendly, this might also encourage connections from neighbors and stray people parking on your curb. Make extra sure to limit guest-network access privileges, such as which band people who connect tin employ or what hours the network is active. You may also want to limit the invitee network to either the 2.4GHz or the 5GHz band, merely not both.

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Monitoring Traffic

It tin can be useful to know how to encounter what traffic goes through your network, and to put a limit on said traffic. If either of these ii features interests you lot, navigate to your router's advanced settings menu. There volition ordinarily be an selection called traffic monitor, traffic meter, or something similar. Enable this characteristic and you lot'll be able to observe your router's traffic. In some routers you tin also choose to limit incoming traffic (downloads), outgoing traffic (uploads), or both. Not all routers have a traffic-monitoring feature, just in that location are a plethora of services online that can exercise information technology for you, including Solarwinds RTBM or PRTG.

If you're setting up a wireless network for a concern, fifty-fifty a pocket-size business organisation tin can benefit greatly from monitoring traffic on a regular footing. From tracking security breaches to ensuring that key applications (similar your phone or video conferencing organization) e'er get the bandwidth they need, traffic monitoring can help. Well-nigh businesses opt for a dedicated network monitoring tool, but if a wireless network is your business concern' primary LAN, a dedicated Wi-Fi management tool, similar Ekahau Pro, is your all-time bet. (Ekahau is owned past Ziff Davis, which besides publishes PCMag.)

FTP Servers

Internet veterans might remember the days earlier Dropbox, when transferring large files between systems required jumping through several hoops with dedicated file-transfer protocol applications. FTP apps may have fallen out of common use, but the applied science can all the same be a handy way to transfer lots of files without dealing with deject services.

FTP servers are just bachelor to routers that accept at least one USB port. The first thing you'll need is a USB storage device, such as an external hard drive, plugged into your router. Adjacent, make your fashion to the advanced settings on the app/configuration page and find a tab chosen USB Storage, USB Settings, or something like. One time in that tab, click the checkbox for "FTP via net" or similar. Your USB device will now be available to users on your network. If y'all would like to be the but i to access the USB device, you can modify the read and write admission to exist admin-just.

Some routers will have you configure read and write access for specific folders. Simply click "new folder," "select folder," or something similar, and navigate to the desired binder on your USB device. Select the folder and employ your changes.

MAC Address Filtering

Think of a MAC (media access control) address as a universally unique proper noun for whatsoever network device. The address is tied to the device hardware. Some routers allow you lot to set a list of specific MAC addresses that can (or tin't) access your network. It's like blacklisting or whitelisting what devices tin can access your LAN.

To do this, find the MAC filter under the avant-garde settings tab. Dual- or tri-band routers will typically have y'all select which band the filter will utilize to, and some routers will have yous select whether the entered MAC address will exist the merely one accepted onto the network or the only accost rejected from it. In one case you've set your preferences for those options, the final footstep is to find the MAC addresses on the devices you'd like to filter and type them in.

For mobile devices such as phones or tablets, the MAC address can be found by accessing your device's settings and navigating to the About Telephone tab. From here, some devices might take a tab titled Status, where the MAC accost can exist found, while others have it readily available in the Almost Telephone section. On a Mac or PC, navigate to your device's network settings folio and open the network and sharing center. Click on your Wi-Fi connection and look for Details or Backdrop. This area will display a myriad of information, including your device'due south "physical accost," another term for MAC accost. (On a Mac, information technology'southward called "Wi-Fi Address.")

Parental Controls

Parental command, at a minimum, lets you establish time limits for when each allowed device (identified by MAC accost) can exist on the network. So if your kid has a bad habit of using devices long after bedtime, but you don't want to constantly play the bad cop who has to police force where and when devices get turned in every night, no trouble.

Showtime employ MAC address filtering to make sure that only approved devices can connect to your router. Then utilise parental controls to brand sure that those allowed devices tin can simply connect within approved hours. It takes only a few minutes to gear up, and, like having a well-configured router in full general, will cure innumerable headaches and brand sure your household runs much more smoothly.

Next Steps

Anybody can get an internet connection up and running in a few minutes by using their router's quick start guide, but most models hide lesser-known treasures in their setup menus. If you want to get the most value possible out of your router investment, take the extra time to explore these advanced options. And if you're withal in the market for a new router, consider going beyond the box's features list and the production'southward spec sheet. Download the transmission, dig into these advanced options, and see which features will evangelize the most value in your environment. In one case you're up and running, examination your net speed. And if you need more guidance, check out our advanced hacks: ten Tips to Speed upwards Your Wi-Fi and 12 Tips to Troubleshoot Your Internet Connectedness.

(Editors' Notation: John Delaney too contributed to this commodity.)

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